Illustrations in a sixteenth-century book on obstetrics

It is possible that some early manuscripts on obstetrics by the classical author, Soranus of Ephesus (98–138 A.D.), were illustrated. A ninth century manuscript derived from this work includes figures of babies in utero which may have been copied from these earlier illustrations. Recognizably similar figures were printed in many 16th and 17th century books on human reproduction. In their turn, popular sex manuals of the 19th and even 20th centuries, such as “Aristotle's works”, were issued with fetal figures positioned in a commodious uterus, so demonstrating the influence of the earlier representations and continuing a tradition of more than a thousand years.